I check in almost daily, but haven't had much to add or ask lately.

I check every day.
Sometimes I even have something to say!

I still check in a couple times a week.

I check a couple of times a week, too, although I am still working in the garden. Weird weather up here, no snow, days still in the sixties (10-15 degrees above normal), nights 30's and 40's. Not that I miss winter, but this is odd!

Why hi everybody!! As anyone seen any posts from Animas elsewhere? I don't think he has posted here for a while.

Bluemill, we've got bears around, but so far they have not bothered my fruit, although they do bother the neighbors. Now racoons, thats another matter altogeather.

I check in daily but things are slow here too. Yep, frost overnight and then back in short sleeves by midmorning. Mind you, I'm not complaining!!

No, now that you mention it David, I haven't seen anything from Animas for some time.

Looks like the last posts from animas were feb/march this year

I check the forum everyday am glad to know folks are still around. It's been pretty slow lately.

I've gone from daily to weekly. I'd hate to see this forum wither but most of the good ones do with time.

I come by once or twice a week, mainly to check for anything new or interesting. --Kris

It always drops off in the fall, only to pick up again in the spring.

I'm here,at least a couple times a week. Just returned from Durango, where there were still leaves on the trees and flowers blooming. Yup, this is a slow time. I'm getting ready for night time catalog reading and dreaming of spring......

I'm here. I'm all done planting bulbs and now I have to decide how many times I'm going to clean the gutters this fall (rolls eyes).

I'm not here often, and I'm new. I wish the board was more active.

Welcome kristie!! Where abputs are you in the springs?

Here! I haven't checked back in a while. Seems like there isn't that much traffic on this forum as some of the others.
I have the winter gardening blues. My passtime now is to go to Webshots, click on Hobbies, go to Gardens and look at pictures of other peoples' gardens. Makes me feel happy when everything here is so BROWN these days.

Hi,
I stopped by thinking about how specific some vegetable varieties are to climate. We are in the interior northwest - not much like the coast climate on the other side of the state.

For 2006, I'm going to be doing my best to evaluate varieties best suited to hot days, cool nights, and overall arid conditions. Oh, yeah, soil is essentially glacial till.

Steve

I am here too and look daily for postings. Just back from NY where I finally convinced my daughter to move out to the SW. We drove from NY to ABQ [where I lived prior to moving to SW Colorado in Sept] over 3 long days last week and she is here now until Thanksgiving. The ride out west showed some lovely colors still around.

I'm split between this forum and the California gardening forum, because my climate has characteristics of both.

I'm here, checking in less frequently too but am happy to see everyone. I'm six months pregnant now so my yard work is slowing down considerably. I did manage to get 37 plants in about a month ago and we put in our new Princess Kay plum tree last weekend - hurrah! We are now stalking abandoned bags of leaves for my soon-to-be leaf mold pile. I need to do my winter top-dressing of compost but require hubby's help and he's in the middle of about 15 other projects...anyone need community service hours? :)

I have been checking in daily for about a year. I'm very much in the learning process (sometimes at a 90 degree curve), and so I'm paying attention to what others have written here. My gardens certainly show the benefits of the time I've spent on this forum! I'm guessing there are others who fit into my category, too. Perhaps they will speak up?!?

I do more looking than posting. I do have a question but I figured I would wait until spring. I was just wondering what plant grows about a foot tall, likes sandy soil that's a bit dry with full sun. I would like the plant to have a long bloom time. That is what I don't like about penstemons, they have such a short blooming period.

Hi all,

I'm glad to see there are this many people at least lurking around here. It makes it feel less lonely! And I think we may all need a shoulder to lean on to help get us through the winter!

Dee Z5CO
I'm glad to find another Dee around here! My name is Dee too! Did you move here from Delaware?

dereks,
How much sand? If it's not mostly sand, how about Gaillardia 'Goblin' - or 'Golden Goblin' for all yellow flowers? They're xeric, love the sun, about a foot tall, and will bloom most of the summer if you deadhead regularly.

Have a good winter everyone, if things get too slow around here, let's start a "support" thread every now and then to discuss our dreams of spring.

Skybird

dereks, I get pretty good results by cutting back the pentsemons after the first bloom. They have been on their second flush now for several weeks. I've got one of the Plant Select ones from a few years ago, whose name escapes me.

I'm here. What a hectic summer. Got married. Remodeled the townhouse. Put in new floors and new furniture. Hadn't really had the time to post.

But I did have the opportunity to trowel-prune a bunch of plants and take the garden in a new direction with homeoclimatic rock-garden speciments in the front of the border. I'm now growing stuff from Turkey, the Balkans, Chile, etc. Still can't get silver-edged horehound (Marrubium rotundifolium) to grow. Just planted another 400 species tulips, crocus and other assorted bulbs - and I have scars for the effort. While bending over to plant, I gashed my head across a tree branch. Nine stitches in my forehead later - and looking like a bit player in the Frankenstein Follies - I resumed bulb planting.

When people stare at the stitches, I tell 'em I was injured while participating in the sport of Extreme Gardening.

All's well in Durango. Very mild fall. Downright hot. When things slow down, I'll post more details.

animas - Congratulations on your marriage. And regarding your Extreme Gardening injury, OUCH! Get well soon! (400 bulbs at one time is definitely pretty extreme!)

David - If you want to figure out which Plant Select Penstemon you have, here's a link to the Plant Select site. It's not possible to link you directly to the penstemon page, but you can get there by clicking Plant/Photo Search and putting Penstemon in the search box. Have you ever tried P. grandiflorus? It has HUGE flowers! The first time I ever saw it I though it was some kind of a foxglove I wasn't familiar with. If you don't have it yet, I highly recommend it. And the 2006 one, P. rostiflorus looks really good too---think I'll have to try it. Hope it's really that red and really blooms that long!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Select

Animas, you must be the only person in Durango not wearing a biking helmet, a kayaking helmet, a skate boarding helmet, or a snow boarding helmet ;-). I thought you were automatically issued one, when entering town.

Skybird, I checked out the plant select site, the one I have is "Pikes Peak Purple". It does very well here, and I have propigated it successfully with cuttings. The first flush, usually in July, is fine, but by cutting it back to about 4" high, the second flush, from Mid-Aug until end Sept, is far better (or at least it was this year).

Don't do much on the computer in the summer and fall but dow a little browsing when the cold weather hits. It is cold this week. Hate to see summer gone. We do Farmers Market in August and September.

Skybird-I have Giallardia and you are right it is a great plant. My soil is very sandy and it seem to love it. I could put giallardia in the spot I have in mind but my yard is so tiny that my garden is more of a collector's garden than based on design.

David52-I do have Penstemon 'red rocks' that did give repeat bloom after cutting back. I really like this penstemon. I have another one I planted this spring that is only an annual here. The tag says its a penstmon hybrid 'scarlet queen'. The flowers were awsome but the bloom time was so short, even after cutting back. I did winter sow some penstmon barbatus last winter. This summer I only have foliage. Hopefully next summer they will make a good show.

David and dereks - I planted both 'Red Rocks' and 'Pikes Peak' in the same location (morning shade/afternoon sun, clay loam, moderate water). The Pikes Peak was a dud. The Red Rocks, well, rocked. It could have just been the plant. These two selections are Mexicali Hybrids, so if the jury is still in session, I'd vote for Red Rocks any day over the Pikes. They do need a bit more water than most of the penstemon clan.

Also, if we're having a case of penstemonium here, good results from 'Elfin Pink.' A wonderful patch of P. barbatus bloomed and then upped and died on me; however, it self-sowed its legacy - not quite where I wanted it but, hey, I'll take what I can get. The red pineleaf penstemons also self sowed this summer in the hottest most god-aweful part of the hellstrip. Go figure. This is a section where I just killed a couple of Thrift-Leaf Perky Sues (hymenoxys), which are supposed to be quite tough. In this spot, the very xeric Partridge Feather (Tanacetum densum x ssp. amani) grown from cuttings thrives with abuse and neglect. To accent its striking silver leaves, I poked in a couple dozen of the blue-eyed, ivory-petaled species tulip, Tulipa humilis 'Alba Coerulea Oculata' (what a mouthful). Can't wait for spring.

I have a 3/4 acre pond that was, once upon a time, a cat tail swamp below a huge sheep barn, that dries out each winter and so I wheel barrow up lots of very mineral laden compost and put it here and there to make beds. I planted my Pikes Peak in that stuff, grown from cuttings, and the second year the thing is at least 2 feet wide and tall, must have 50 separate stems, and thats on the second go around. It is in full sun. The ones in partial shade aren't nearly as spectacular.

So who knows. What I do find is that some xeric things just up and die with abundant moisture and nutrients, while others go nuts. I've got a Clemantis montana something sp that is going to get a dose of Roundup here pretty quick, aka Rocky Mountain Kudzu

I don't check this forum very regularly. There seems to be a problem with the other forum I usually go to though. (Have you had any problems dave?)

Been quite some time since I have stopped in to the forums, but when I do I always stop in and read,,new name for me though, previously I was known as jwj on here and made it in to chat quite a bit in the beginning back when rocky mountains was being added..
MM

I remember

Hey jwj! I wondered where you had gone to... still in W. Montana? Got snow? We're finally having some more realistic winter weather over here, right Dave?

I just went out today and did my usual snow shoveling on the front lawn- we've got a few new folks on the block, and I figured it was time for them to join the rest of the block that thinks that I'm nuts for shoveling snow off the remaining front lawn, and dumping it on the flower beds.

LOL, snow from our front lawn is piled on the flower beds too. I thought doing that was perfectly normal... Our neighbors look the other way :)

Hi there, I check the posts every week or so. The weather has been dry in north central NM, no snow or rain. Looks like my former home in CO has been getting killed though.
Rabbits have started to eat the bark of my yearling fruit trees. That's OK, little do they know how much I like to eat
Rabbit.

Just checking in for the first time. I had no idea this great litle forum existed until now. Gardening here in North central Colorado is a challenge. I need all the help I can get to garden in this wind.

Yago/Rodney here,
Sorry for the tardy response.
I browse here as well as several other forums. I just recently bought a house (and got my internet connection working)in Lakewood. The yard is pretty much a clean slate so I will most likely be posting a bunch of questions this spring. I just can't wait to start swapping out lawn for vegetables and flowers.
~Rodney

Check in from time to time. Would love it if more people in the high altitude areas of NM were more active. I'm very interested in perma-culture and am looking for resources.

Hi everyone! I haven't checked in here in quite some time. This has been the strangest winter here in Montana! Thank goodness it has cooled off. I had daffodils and tulips peeking through, and my elm trees were budding out, too. Hopefully this cool snap will slow things down a bit.
My DH and I are looking at an old (1914) farmhouse to buy. If all works out, I'll have a clean slate from which to start! Just hoping that I'll be able to find the time (and energy!) to dig up some of my perennials and take them with.

Hello everyone,

I don't do much browsing on this forum, except (of course) during the summer months. I'm in process of starting a small market garden business during the winter months and have been focusing most of my efforts in the building of a solar greenhouse the last year. Most of my time has been spent in the other forums. I decided to visit this forum in hopes of finding other people suffering from cabin fever, misery loves company right? For some reason this winter is driving me batty, couldn't have anything to do with the -25 degree temps last week, huh? Now, we just got 3 feet of snow, which will all melt, then it will dump, melt, dump.............Arrrgggh!

Just a quick "hi" to all....

I have been a member of this forum since the very beginning, but haven't posted in a very long time. I'm pretty sure that now, no one here knows of me. I do read while lurking, though. I've seen so many helpful suggestions to others ...and I've used a few myself.

Thanks to all for adding to my knowledge and entertainment.

Crystal

Happy Gardening To All in 2006!

Hello all

I check in and contribute to this forum from time to time. Like the rest of you, am in the middle of the winter doldrums... but the garden catalogues have started arriving, which always helps.

I live at 6700 feet in the Upper Yampa Valley (Steamboat) and I think that I am in zone 3 (above the snow) and zone 4 (below the snow) - or so I have been told. As I have gardened throughout my life, I have slowly migrated from Zone 7 (Washington State) to 5 (Nevada and Denver), and now to ZOne 3/4. Lots to learn!

I do have a question: any suggestions for a gardening mag that has lots of info for our climate? Fine Gardening is wonderful, but the plants they feature are usually only grown in warmer climes... any suggestions?

Julia

Animas: What kind of problem are you having with your marrubium rotundifolium? That has been one of my favorite plants for tough areas for several years. I grow it in both xeric and irrigated areas, and it does so well I have to hack it back each spring. Should love your tough slope.

Mystree: for permaculture information, there is a guy in my area that specializes in this. Actually has a school, and it's amazing what he grows at 7200'. Website is below.

Coflower nut: I have subscribed to every single landscape mag there is - even the British ones, and none are especially good for our area. For flower gardens, I find I tag the most pages in the Better Homes and Gardens specialty mags - Garden Shed, Country Gardens, Deck and Garden, all those. And of course Sunset Mtn edtion does have small sections on mtn gardening. Do you read Garden Design and Horticulture? Both very good mags.

We've had a great snow winter here. Thought Spring might be coming last week when it warmed up, but now - like some of you no doubt - we're in the midst of a 5 day snowstorm.
Must have over 200 birds out at the feeders right now - wow!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rocky Mountain Permaculture

Hello from Moscow, Idaho!

Hello to everyone from an intermittent poster. I am in Berthoud (was Fort Collins) and definitely on the newbie side of gardening. Last year I spent my limited gardening time keeping weeds in check, plus I planted some tulips. So far this year I have planted some seeds- sweet pea, sugar snap peas, scallion, lettuce, spinach. I am planning on more vegetable seeds but I'm almost 7 months pregnant so further gardening might have to wait until 2007. Too bad I missed this thread last fall/winter. It sure seemed like a looong winter, and I'm so glad spring is finally here.

Just started reading over here. I'm currently in Bakersfield California, but will be moving to Nampa, Idaho in the next two weeks. I'm mainly a vegetable gardener, though there may be some landscaping to do at my new house. That's the fun of buying a place during winter - I have no idea what might show up over the course of this year!

Hey Lantanascape, I have a good friend in Nampa, and we've enjoyed visiting his family up there. We've spent a couple of fun 4th of July weekends there, and it seems like Nampa is the illegal fireworks capital of the West! It's fun to see all the rockets going up all over town through the night. Even more fun to be part of the action!

The Snake River Canyon is a beautiful place, too. Saw lots of falcons there last time we went. Looks like it could be good for fishing.

I think they're a Zone 6 up there, like we are here in Utah Valley, and it's a good zone for veggie gardening and all kinds of other gardening. For us, the last freeze is in early May and the first freeze is usually in mid-October, so we get a pretty good growing season.

I hope you enjoy living there!

I'm starting my spring gardening again, though most of the perennials are slow starting this year. I think it's because we had some very long, very cold streaks, and the plants were deeply dormant. Some years they never even turn brown, but not this one!

I'm setting out cabbages and onions this week, and planting some lettuce and spinach seeds. The Western Meadowlarks are singing in my neighborhood again, so it must be spring for real!